Advert for a blog post (******samefacts.com/2018/07/everything-else/james-hansen-and-the-whale-a-tragi-comedy-in-four-chapters/ ) on James Hansen’s Jonah syndrome, going into a sulk after his victory.

Related: the chemist John Goodenough, who co-invented the lithium-ion battery at Oxford (hey!) in 1998, has announced in a peer-reviewed article a better solid-state version with a lithium glass electrolyte (****axios.com/battery-pioneer-1528047409-d0515380-1881-4e96-891f-3763eaa84666.html). It has twice the energy density of current batteries, crucial for the range of electric cars and trucks and bringing closer the feasibility of electric airliners. His team have tested the battery for 23,000 cycles and it charges better with time. Too good to be true?

Goodenough is an amazing 95 years old. You don’t start cheating at that age. How closely is he supervising the postdocs? These will be the best in the business, competing to work with the great man. I think he and they deserve the benefit of the doubt until the work is replicated. Unlike the situation forty years ago, there is now a large battery industry with its own labs, keeping tabs on promising new ideas, so we will find out soon enough.

Another post of mine from a year ago with a letter to the Nobel committee for chemistry that has so far failed to recognize Goodenough’s enormous contribution. I re-sent it this year. The post includes the relevant email address if you feel like joining in. (****samefacts.com/2017/03/everything-else/a-nobel-prize-for-john-goodenough/).